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Game not running as fast after new SSD

Tags:
  • Video Games
  • SSD
  • Games
  • Windows 7
Last response: in Video Games
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August 31, 2014 1:53:07 PM

I just recently got an SSD and installed windows 7 to it. All of my games were on a storage partition on my HDD so I didn't need to reinstall them. All of my games that I have played since the new SSD run just like they did when it was just the HDD in the system...except for GTA4. It before the SSD it ran very smooth even after playing it for hours at a time. But now, it runs smooth for about 1 minute of playing, then slows down to a choppy mess. I don't understand where this problem is coming from or why it would be doing it now. Nothing changed except for a fresh windows 7 install.
My drivers are the same as before the SSD as are my nvidia settings. The graphics settings in the game are the same maxed out settings I have always used.

Any clue as to what it could be?

More about : game running fast ssd

a b $ Windows 7
August 31, 2014 2:42:38 PM

Well GTA4 is a POS.
SSDs don't actually affect game performance, they only affect loading times, and only if the games are installed on them.
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August 31, 2014 3:03:27 PM

Hello,

as James Mason said the SSD doesn't affect performance as getting higher FPS or similar.

At first I thought you might have knocked something out of place/unplugged some cable accidentally when installing your new SSD but you said all other games work as well as before.

Other than that if everything else works fine and it's only this one game in particular you are having problems with it's worth trying to reinstall it and see things improve.

Also some older games sometimes require older versions of Direct X, PhysX etc. installed. After a fresh Wndows 7 install I had problems with a few games refusing to start so I had to download older versions of both Direct X and PhysX.

Check the GTA IV folder and see if there is a DirectX installation in some folder in there and install it. Or just check for older DirectX versions on Microsoft's website.

Hope this helps.
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August 31, 2014 4:58:43 PM

Mouldread said:
Hello,

as James Mason said the SSD doesn't affect performance as getting higher FPS or similar.

At first I thought you might have knocked something out of place/unplugged some cable accidentally when installing your new SSD but you said all other games work as well as before.

Other than that if everything else works fine and it's only this one game in particular you are having problems with it's worth trying to reinstall it and see things improve.

Also some older games sometimes require older versions of Direct X, PhysX etc. installed. After a fresh Wndows 7 install I had problems with a few games refusing to start so I had to download older versions of both Direct X and PhysX.

Check the GTA IV folder and see if there is a DirectX installation in some folder in there and install it. Or just check for older DirectX versions on Microsoft's website.

Hope this helps.


Yeah, i'm not expecting the game to run faster because of the SSD. It shouldn't even load the world faster because it is still installed to the HDD. The issue is that the game isn't running to the same level that it always used to. Good point about the directX. I'll have steam reinstall GTA4's directX packets and see if that helps.
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August 31, 2014 9:26:15 PM

So I had steam re-verify the game's install which reinstalled the directx installers that I deleted after the games initial setup when I first installed it a year ago. I ran the game and it did the directx install step. Unfortunately, the game still has the problem. About 30 seconds in, the framerate jumps to about 15. Even setting the game to its lowest settings has no impact on this massive framerate drop.

What now? I'd like to avoid having to redownload and reinstall the game if possible, but if I must, I will.
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August 31, 2014 10:00:00 PM

Hm...

I'm still not 100% sure it isn't related to Direct X or similar but the other reason I can think of is that something must be underclocking as soon as you start the game, not sure if the CPU or the GPU clock speeds. I somehow think it could be the CPU though. I don't have the time now to explain the long story on how to check it but you might already know that, seeing you are a gamer :)  Check if you CPU or GPU throttles down after launching the game.
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a b $ Windows 7
August 31, 2014 11:57:06 PM

Uhh, was the OS ALWAYS installed on another drive?
If not I think everything is gonna be ruined, you can't really transfer a hard drive with installed programs from one computer to another.
I think you have to try a complete reinstall though to confirm.
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September 2, 2014 9:19:58 AM

James Mason said:
Uhh, was the OS ALWAYS installed on another drive?
If not I think everything is gonna be ruined, you can't really transfer a hard drive with installed programs from one computer to another.
I think you have to try a complete reinstall though to confirm.


At first, I just had the HDD with 7 in one partition and all games in a second partition. Now I have 7 on the 1 SSD partition and I just expanded the game storage partition on the HDD to encompass the entire drive. The game install never moved drives or even partitions.
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September 2, 2014 9:21:39 AM

Mouldread said:
Hm...

I'm still not 100% sure it isn't related to Direct X or similar but the other reason I can think of is that something must be underclocking as soon as you start the game, not sure if the CPU or the GPU clock speeds. I somehow think it could be the CPU though. I don't have the time now to explain the long story on how to check it but you might already know that, seeing you are a gamer :)  Check if you CPU or GPU throttles down after launching the game.


I'll run the game tonight and check the cpu clock via intel's cpu clock monitor or MSI's afterburner and report back what I find. Seems odd though that it would only do it in this one game.
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